


Full Circle

by AmandaHawthorn



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-05
Updated: 2017-04-05
Packaged: 2018-10-15 02:28:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10548512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmandaHawthorn/pseuds/AmandaHawthorn
Summary: She drank him in, casting every part of him to her memory as she tried not to feel the hurt bubbling up inside her when he hadn't even acknowledged her presence yet.Season 7 finale missing scene*This is based on the assumption that Carol doesn't know that Glenn and Abraham's graves are actually at Hilltop and not in the mock graves in Alexandria*





	

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended
> 
>  
> 
> As much as I loved the season 7 finale I was disappointed that there was no interaction between Daryl and Carol, so I wrote my own

It was over, the battle had been won for now and Negan was in retreat. Everything had happened so fast that no one had had a chance to revel in the presence of their comrades, their lovers, their friends… they had come together in a series of planned strikes, guns blazing, united in camaraderie as they fought side by side to relinquish Negan’s hold over them.

 

It was only now, as the dust began to settle and the injured were moved to the makeshift hospital that the full extent of what they had accomplished began to sink in. People began to come together… old friends long separated moving to greet one another… and hope once again began to flourish in Alexandria.

 

Lifting the armour from her body, Carol placed it carefully beside the wooden stairs of the house she used to share with her family here. She was well aware that she had left it all behind to live her life in solitude. She had so many people she needed to apologize to, good people that she had hurt in her quest to ease her pain.

 

Lifting her eyes to the people around her she sought out everyone she knew, her eyes flitting from one face to another until her gaze settled on the one person she ached to see again.

 

She drank him in, casting every part of him to her memory as she tried not to feel the hurt bubbling up inside her when he hadn’t even acknowledged her presence yet… she knew it was wrong to think of herself right now, but in this moment of quiet acceptance, she wanted nothing more than to feel his reassuring touch.

 

To her left she knew that Tobin was watching her, but she refused to acknowledge him right now. She had used him to make herself feel… but instead of opening herself up to those overwhelming feelings of love and passion, all she felt was emptiness and shame. He deserved better than her, she had known that before she had willingly gone to his bed. She hadn’t been fair to him or herself for that matter, but she had been broken… lost… wallowing in the devastation that had carved a path inside her heart with the losses of everyone she had loved. He had paid the price for her desolation and she hoped that maybe one day he would forgive her… but if he didn’t… she wasn’t sure she really cared any more. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn’t see the other man approach her...but she felt him invade her space...his silence encompassin her

 

King Ezekiel stood beside her, his presence causing her to swallow the sorrow that had left a constant ball in her throat. He had been nothing but honest with her, making his interests in her known within weeks of their first meeting. He wanted to keep her by his side and cherish her in all of the ways that Ed never did… but how could she open her heart to him when another man had stolen it so long ago. Even though she had resigned herself to never seeing him again, the love she held for him still burned within her…

 

Taking a step away from Ezekiel she hoped that by this small gesture he would get the message that she really wasn’t the person he thought her to be. She needed to be with the man who worked without speaking… the man whose face bore new scars and bruises since the last ime she had seen him… she needed to be near him again so that he could reassure her that she really was worthy and that by unintentionally hurting him she hadn’t turned whatever feelings they had for each other into ashes… but as she focused on him, her eyes caught sight of the new mounds of earth, crooked crosses that marked fresh graves, and suddenly she found herself moving forward… placing one foot in front of the other until she was standing before another grave of someone she loved. Sinkng to her knees she looked at the name etched in the wood and felt someting break inside her.

Her movements had caught Daryl’s attention but she couldn’t focus on him as grief gripped around her heart. All she could think of was the Korean man with the huge heart who had brought them all together and made them into a family… he should have been here… he shouldn’t be in the ground while she, a woman who had killed far too many innocents, was still breathing.

 

Taking a shuddered breath, she leant forward and brushed her fingers across the makeshift cross that was the only reminder that he was still with them. He had been her friend; the brightness that had kept them all fighting after the turn. But here he was, laying a short distance beneath her knees, his presence still giving her the fuel to fight. Dropping her fingers away from his cross she closed her eyes as she laid the palm of her hand flat against the earth, willing him to feel her from wherever he was now.

 

Devastation reigned around her after Negan’s retreat but she couldn’t deal with any of it, not until she had performed what had become a ritual of sorts for her . Saying goodbye was always the hardest part of all of their losses since this whole nightmarish world had begun. Nothing was guaranteed in this life anymore, and she had began to realise that she couldn’t hide away and pretend she could survive alone, because since Daryl had found her holed up in her hermit’s cottage, he had awoken all of those feelings that she had tried so hard to bury.

 

Opening her eyes she lifted her hand to her lips to press a kiss onto her fingertips before laying her hand over the earth again, sending her love to a man who she would dearly miss. Lifting herself up she moved across to the grave beside Glenn’s to repeat the process, sending her love to Abraham, the man she had come to respect who was lying beside him.

 

The touch of a hand on her shoulder brought a peace to her heart, the warmth enveloping her to dull the ache of loss that had hung around her for so long. She knew who had invaded her space without needing to turn around. Daryl was the only one who could comfort her with the smallest of touches, and after he had lied to her to keep her safe, he had unknowingly opened the floodgates to everything she had tried so hard to push away. Pulling her hand away from the ground she reached up to thread her fingers through his on her shoulder and leaned her head to rest her cheek onto their joined hands.

 

Within seconds he had moved closer, falling to his knees behind her only to bury his forehead into her other shoulder as he wrapped his free arm around her torso to pull her body closer to his.

 

“‘M sorry,” he whispered brokenly, knowing that she had found out the truth of his lies. “‘M so sorry…”

 

Carol closed her eyes against the tears that threatened to fall, but they tumbled over her cheeks anyway. Opening her eyes she took a moment to relish his closeness before she shifted her body. Releasing his hand she turned around in his embrace, her knees pressed against his on the grass. His tears only sparked more of her own as she lifted her hands to frame his face, pulling him closer.

 

“No,” she whispered hoarsely, her breath mingling with his. “You saved me…”

 

Her words caused whatever walls he had built around himself to come tumbling down as he suddenly surged forward, sealing his lips to hers in a brief, desperate kiss that sent sparks of fire throughout her body.

 

When their lips slowly parted, Carol was lost in him. She could feel the sorrow of the last few years shatter around her as her hands left his face and her arms wrapped around his shoulders. Sitting up higher on her knees she sank into him, pressing her body flush against his when he burried his face into the spce between her shoulder and neck. Her lips still burned with his kiss and she knew whatever happened from this moment on that she would never be apart from him again. He was everything.

 

The sounds around them melted away as they remained in the same position, wrapped around each other in front of the graves of the people they loved, and as Daryl lifted his head from her shoulder to find her lips again, her last thought as she drowned in his kiss was of Glenn and how he would be overjoyed that they had finally come together at last ...

 

End


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